SNAP out of sweet drink buys

Two news items from last week raise hope that the American society will hasten progress on the national obesity crisis.

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poconorecord.com

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Posted Jun. 28, 2013 at 12:01 AM

Posted Jun. 28, 2013 at 12:01 AM

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Two news items from last week raise hope that the American society will hasten progress on the national obesity crisis.

One, the American Medical Association voted June 19 to declare obesity a disease. That move officially defines 78 million adults and 12 million children as having a medical condition that requires treatment.

Two, the mayors of 18 cities, including New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, are publicly pushing Congress to ban the use of food stamps to buy soda and other sweet drinks. One need only look at the real estate that such drinks occupy in any supermarket or convenience store to see the prominent role calorie-laden drinks play in the American diet.

There will always be opposition to government intervention in people's life choices. But remember, taxpayers foot the bill for food stamps, a longstanding federal program now called Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program that 47 million Americans use. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg was right on the money in saying "Why should we continue supporting unhealthy purchases in the false name of nutrition assistance?"

Obesity limits people's physical activity and claims lives. It's also a costly disease, by one measure adding about $147 billion each year to the cost of U.S. health care. In part, higher caloric intake is to blame. Americans take in about 250 more calories a day now than they did in the 1980s, at the same time they're finding more and more ways to recreate by moving nothing besides their thumbs.

Obesity is associated with heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, kidney problems, arthritis and other problems. It's a complex medical condition that deserves more attention from physicians and medical researchers.

Meanwhile there's no sense in forcing taxpayers to pay for food stamp users' purchase of nutritionally empty calories. SNAP vouchers should cover the cost of healthy foods and drinks.

Americans need to have a conversation about a disease that's affecting nearly a third of the population. Eating better and getting healthy physical activity will help many of them avoid carrying health-threatening extra pounds. That ounce of prevention would be far less troublesome, not to mention expensive, than the cure.